Before The Dawn
by KukkiaKipu
Summary: Based on Cinderella. Life isn't as sweet as it once was to Flora. Orphaned and working for people she hates, she takes out her frustrations by conning market vendors. When the news that the mixer of bachelorettes set up for the prince is open to anyone, of course she's going to sneak out.
1. Chapter 1

Well festival season is over for me *sob sob*, I did have a great few weeks of moshing out to music, getting yelled at by drunk guys and indulging the the most delicious yet extortionately priced food known to man, but alas, that has ended. Anyway, I'm back writing agains, so I was all like: new story? Yeah? Yeah. I know I've been getting a lot of requests to get the flip on with the ones I've already got out, but every so often I think of something else I want to do, and I normally forget things soooo yeaaaaah...

Okay, so I know the whole Cinderella thing may be a little over done, but I really want to get in on this un-original yet full-of-potential-for-character-development classic fairy-tale. I want to stay true to the original, yet, um… You get the drill.

Seeing as it's me, it's pretty damn clear that Flora will be playing the part of Cinderella, but I'm not going to use Rose/Miele as an 'ugly step sister', although she is Flora's sister, she's very pretty, and I want to keep the characters in character . … Having said that, I want Flora to be a con artist. It'll make sense, maybe. I also want to mention that I haven't really read any of the Cinderella based fanfics on here, so if someone has used the same characters as me (aka Cassandra as the stepmother) it is purely because they are most suited for the role, not because I'm being a sneaky biatch.

This story is going to be named after the song 'Before the Dawn' by Evanescence: _And maybe tonight, we'll fly so far away, we'll be lost before the dawn. _I thought it was appropriate because of the whole getting back before midnight thing.

**Before The Dawn**

Linphea. As calm and as peaceful as it sounds. Fresh forests, clean fields and crisp waters take up the majority of the space, and the people were as calm as you would expect. The main business was producing fresh food and shipping it off to other places. People would grow their own produce, take it to their nearest 'Business Station' and from there it would be taken to the centre of everything, a city called 'Mithweald'. Eighty percent of the food submitted was packaged in bio-degradable packing and shipped to other places, like Domino, Solaria and Zenith, but the other twenty percent was sold in Markets within Mithweald, as it was at the centre of everything, people were kept busy and prices were rising higher. Haggling was common, but supermarkets and convenience stores were not. They tended to keep their business out of the city, as it was a place of tradition; people visited for the royalty and not much more.

You see, Mithweald was either a place of nobility or a place of poverty. The King and his family lived in a beautiful castle situated on the top of a hill overlooking the city. Other noble families could afford to live in mansions and manor houses without struggle, but the working class who spend their days working in packaging plants and their free time haggling for food in the markets.

Flora was a girl who knew both worlds well.

Flora's father wanted her to have _everything._ She was tutored in six languages, had extensive science, specifically botany, and music lessons. Last but not least she was showered with expensive gifts and a lavish lifestyle. Flora liked her life, loved learning new things and felt lucky, but knowing that she was loved was the most important thing to her, at the end of the day, she was happy to just spend time with her parents.

She didn't think much of it when her mother first got ill.

Her mother would keep the home up coughing in the middle of the night, but insisted it was just a cold.

It was a long and painful situation, but after three years Flora's mother died of lung cancer.

Devastated, Flora's father desperately tried to fill the hole in their lives.

Enter Countess Cassandra and her daughter Chimera. Cassandra had coincidently just lost her own husband, and was left a fair sum of money. Enough for her and her daughter to live comfortably in a nice house without doing much work for the rest of their lives, but the woman had quickly grown bored.

One night she was sitting in a bar on her own, drinking a glass of red wine and eyeing up her company. Not so far away from her sat a handsome man with green eyes and slick back brown hair. He had a melancholy aura surrounding him, and seemed not to be paying much attention to anyone else.

"Excuse me sir, you seem sad, would you like to join me?" This was all the man needed to here. Polite, sympathetic and social-able: a perfect new role model for his daughter. After not much time, the man was charmed but Cassandra's charisma, she was friendly and easy to talk to, not to mention her long blond hair and striking features.

Arrangements were made in a hurry, Cassandra and Chimera moved in with this man and his only daughter., and everyone moved on with their lives.

Flora didn't care much for her new family, and she knew the feeling was mutual. Cassandra's attempts to bond with her stepdaughter were… Not existent. In fact, the only sentence she ever uttered to Flora other than hello was: 'You certainly have a lot of… things, don't you?" Flora never responded. She wasn't happy with the change, but she still loved her father and appreciated that the only reason he had found someone new so quickly was because of her; she didn't doubt for one moment that he still loved her mother more than Cassandra. As long as she had him, she'd be fine.

Cassandra had one ambition: to be royalty. To her luck, this was a dream more than in reach. The king had one son, Prince Helia. He was fourteen years old, the same age as Flora and Chimera. In Linphea it was tradition for the king to hold a ball where all the eligible bachelorettes would attend and have a chance to mingle with the prince, or maybe meet another noble from Linphea. Unfortunately for Cassandra, Flora would also be attending. This was bad news. Flora was such a well-rounded girl, not to mention she had the exotic look that was meant to epitomise a Linphean, talk about the perfect catch. She was certain that one-day she would have to stand and watch the prince be taken in by Flora's pathetic charm.

A small chance for the royal life wasn't enough for her, and she was prepared to go to whatever lengths necessary to increase that chance, even by a fraction.

The day before Flora's seventeenth birthday, her father died.

The household woke up to find his limp body lying in front of the fireplace.

Cassandra took all the life insurance money almost too happily, and the authorities never found a will. Flora lost all her privileges, lessons and possessions. It soon seemed like a waste to spend much money on Flora at all, after all, she was just an orphan. So, out of the goodness of her heart, she set up a charming little room for Flora in the attic, and kept her alive and healthy (more or less) on the condition that she worked as the house's maid and never told anyone who she once was.

No-one questioned Flora's decline in class, truth be told, no one recognised her. There was some talk that a distraught daughter who had just lost her only parent left had fled for a new life, but most of the nobles new what had happened, and they didn't really care. Flora was nothing without her parents and wasn't entitled to anything. They didn't want much to do with someone of the working class. Flora wasn't allowed to talk about who she once was, to everyone who didn't know, she was a maid and nothing more.

Flora was broken; she had let everything get to her.

There wasn't one person in the whole world that cared about her.

That is, until Cassandra put her in charge of buying the groceries at the markets.

"You really think I can haggle? It always looked scary to me." Flora had been called to the dining room where Cassandra and Chimera were eating breakfast.

"Get over it." She rolled her eyes, "Just get what we need with the money I give you, got it?"

"Yes, yes."

"Every morning from this day on, do you understand? I don't want to have to remind you."

"Yes,"

"Okay, off you go."

And that was that, Flora went head first into the hustle and bustle of the market place. Fresh fish, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, pastries, anything you could want. It was all locally produced and organic, that was what Flora loved the most about Linphea. She checked the list Cassandra had given her.

"Peppers, squash and tomatoes." She walked to the vegetable stand and caught the vendor's attention. A short-ish balding man with a gold tooth smiled slyly at her.

"What can I do for you, pretty little lady?" he asked coyly.

"Oh, I… I need some peppers, some squash and a few tomatoes," she answered shyly.

"Okay, let me just calculate your total… That comes to eight credits exactly." He grinned. Flora gasped.

"No way!" she exclaimed, "That's almost all the money I have! I have so many other things I need to get!"

"Oh, so you're insulting me, is that it? Don't you think my produce is good enough for your money? Is that it?"

"No no no, I never said that, I mean… I guess if that's what it costs then…" Flora sighed and reached into the pocket of her dress for the money Cassandra gave her. Suddenly, a girl grabbed Flora's arm and looked at her angrily. Flora looked the girl up and down. She was very pretty, blonde and had these big, light brown eyes. She was wearing a long, pink satin dress. A contrast to everyone else's dull clothing.

"You have no idea how mad mum is going to be is you mess this up, we're running thin as it is and if we loose any more money because of you, you know where you're going." The girl hissed, "Your first day in the markets, and you screw it up!"

"Y-yes… I-I'm sorry…" Flora was beyond confused; she had never seen this girl before. How did she know what she was doing? The vendor looked at Flora with pity. He knew it was tough to get by in the markets, maybe better than anyone.

"Wait wait wait, listen, I'll give you a first-time customers discount. Two and a half credits, take it or leave it." He sighed.

"Oh my gosh, that's fantastic, thank you very much!" Flora happily handed him the money and took her vegetables.

"You got lucky." The girl sneered and pulled her around the corner and out of sight from the vendor, and then to Flora's surprise, burst out laughing. "I can't believe you were going to pay so much for those things! They're were worth about three credits at best!" she sniggered, "Look, you're obviously new to this system, so I thought I'd cut in and help you out. No harm done." She smiled.

"Thank you so much, I knew I'd be awful at this," Flora said gratefully.

"No problem, I can even show you the ropes if you want me to,"

"That would be great! Hey, what's your name?" Flora asked. The girl giggled.

"Why, they call me… Estella!" She said with a flourish.

"They call you Estella? What's your real name?"

"… Stella," she smirked. "Estella is more of an alias around here, if I have to use my name, I use Estella. What's your name?"

"Flora." She said simply.

"So, Flora, are you shopping for yourself or are you working or whatever?"

"Oh, I'm a maid. I'm just shopping for my step mo-boss."

"Your step-mother?"

"L-last year… I guess you could say things got bad." Flora smiled a little, "What about you? You look so fancy…"

"It's all part of the act, my dear," Stella twirled, "Sometimes I go for the poor orphan 'who can't afford to live' look, and other times I go for the whole 'my family is rich and if you give me free food we'll get you great business' thing."

"But… How can you afford clothes like that?" Flora asked in awe.

"I don't." She put simply, "I live here with my dad, but my mum owns a dress shop in the country, she made this for me and sent it to me on my birthday." She smiled.

"Oh, have your parents separated then?" Flora asked sympathetically. Stella nodded slightly.

"It's no big deal," she grinned suddenly, "How about you? What's this about your Step-mother?"

"Oh, it's nothing! I am very happy with my life and I love everyone and I am happy to help around the house hold in any way I can even if getting thanked is a little bit too rare and my step-sister is a snot-nosed brat who has all my things and won't let me see them and even if my step-mother stopped all my tuition because 'it was a waste of time and money for me', I mean, COME ON! LIKE MAKING SURE ALL HER SHOES ARE PARALLEL TO HER DRESSING TABLE ISN'T A WASTE OF TIME?" Flora kicked down a trashcan and started stomping on the rubbish.

"WHOA! Calm down!" Stella pulled Flora away. "That's some serious baggage! Come on, lets go somewhere else." They walked into an alleyway and sat against a wall. "NOW you can vent."

"My father owned the Biover packaging plant and my mother was the royal colour advisor, she arranged flowers and kept the palace looking traditional. But… My mum died of lung cancer and… My dad married this woman called Cassandra; she moved in with her daughter, Chimera. I didn't really like them, but I moved on. Then… My dad died."

"Are you serious?" Stella asked quietly, "I'm so sorry."

"It's been a year." Flora stated. "It hurts but… You get used to it."

"How did your father die?"

"Sudden adult death syndrome. In other words, they don't know."

"So… I'm guessing that Cassandra hired you as a live in maid so you wouldn't have to go to an orphanage."

"That's about right, expect, I don't get paid."

"THAT'S STRIAGHT UP BULL CRAP!" Stella exclaimed, "Can she even do that?"

"Legally, yes. Until I'm twenty-one, but I don't have enough of an education to get a proper job, so I'm pretty sure I'll be stuck with them for the rest of my life."

"Your father must have left something to you, anything?"

"They never found a will, everything automatically went to Cassandra."

"That's horrible."

"I'll get her back one day, you can bet on it!" Flora laughed. "So, about showing me the ropes…"

"Uh, oh yeah!" Stella enthusiastically cleared her throat, "Around here, there's a sort of rota. For the course of the year, sellers from each part of the country all come up, starting with Anemone in January and ending with Poinsettia in December."

"I see,"

"Different towns mean different people," she said slyly, "Every few weeks new vendors come, and that gives people like us to play any card we want. Like I said, I either go for the starving orphan or the privileged girl who can help out with the money sitch. What could you do?"

"Uhm… I could…" Flora tapped her chin, "Pretend to be… Lost?"

"What good would that do?"

"It would distract them?"

"… That's not a bad idea actually. You could pretend to be lost, and I could take the goods…" She pondered, "Let's try it out! What do you need next?"

"Salmon."

"Okay, the fish stand is right around the corner. You run up, be really confused and lost, and I'll take a fish." Stella grinned. Flora gulped. "Be a good actress."

"O-okay!" Flora nodded and walked out on to the street. She started to breathe heavily and stumble about a bit, she ran aimlessly to the fish stand. "H-hallo! Bi-bitte, ich brauche hilfe!"

"Uh, I'm really sorry miss, I only speak English! What was that? Um… Do you need help?" The vendor worriedly replied. Flora continued to make vague hand gestures and desperate noises.

"HILFE!" she kept yelling out. She glanced to her left and saw Stella a little in the distance carrying a salmon in a plastic bag and giving her the thumbs up. "… Aufwiedersehen…" she said slowly and then ran off as fast as she could.

"No way Flora! That was awesome!" She gave her the salmon, "How did you learn how to speak German?"

"I was tutored in a few languages when I was younger."

"That's aweso-… Hey!" Stella suddenly yelled at a pale girl with dark hair, carrying a flute, "YEAH YOU! I KNOW YOU!" The girl turned a little whiter, and then turned on her heels and ran. "OH NO YOU DON'T!" Stella fumed and ran as fast as she could after the girl.

"Stella WAIT!" Flora called and ran behind her. They eventually chased the girl into another alleyway, and Stella managed to pin her against the floor.

"Flora!" Stella said firmly.

"Y-yes…" Flora panted.

"Get me something sharp or heavy…" Stella said with an evil grin on her face. Flora turned pale.

"What? NO!" She pulled Stella off the girl, "What the heck is going on here anyway?" The girl stood up and rubbed her shoulder, from Stella's harsh handling presumably. She picked up her flute and sighed.

"I stole the blonde's purse…" she muttered.

"DAMN STRAIGHT!" Stella yelled.

"You made it so easy!" said Musa, she turned to Flora, "I make money by playing my flute on the streets, and my parents do the same. We split up so we can make more. Stella struck up a conversation with me and was about to give me some money when she handed me her purse so she could tie her shoe. I picked up my flute, my dad's hat with the money I had earned in it, and, well, ran…"

"Who hands a stranger their purse?" Flora raised an eyebrow.

"Okay okay, I was trying to steal from her as well, I was going to grab that hat and run…. I didn't realise she'd do it first."

"Stella, you're no better than her!" Flora held her forehead, "My name's Flora, what's yours?" she smiled at the girl.

"I'm Musa, and thanks from stopping the blonde from killing me."

"I HAVE A NAME YOU KNOW!"

"That's Stella."

"Thanks for clearing that up."

"Flora and I have a thing going now, we're going to be scammers that'll go down in history!" Stella announced proudly. "This lil girly just pretended she was lost and German so I could sneak away a whole Salmon!" she put her arm around the blushing brunette.

"Really? You?" Musa sounded genuinely surprised, "You look way too innocent to play with someone like that…" She smirked.

"I… Uh…"

"Don't make her feel bad! They almost made her pay eight credits for some lousy vegetables; they try to do the same thing to us all the time!"

"So how long have you guys known each other for then?" Musa continued to brush herself off.

"… Maybe… Twenty minutes to half an hour?"

"Oh! I guess I don't need to feel left out then!" She smiled, "If I may, do you think I could join the fun?"

"I dunno, you did steal my purse…" Stella pondered angrily, "But then again, you did steal my purse… Okay! You're in!"

And from then on the three girls met up every morning and gave all the vendors hell. If they were lucky, they could get a days groceries without having to pay a dime, and Flora could just use the money Cassandra gave her to buy a drink or pastry or whatever the hell she wanted.

A year passed, and Flora became close with her new misfit friends. Stella turned nineteen, and Flora and Musa became eighteen without much time between.

Flora couldn't help but think of where she would be if her parents were still alive. She could picture her mother making a fuss about the big ball for the prince and what she was going to wear, and she could picture her father talking her up at every possible opportunity. But today, things are very different. It didn't look like Flora would even be attending… Or so she thought.

A bored prince Helia sat in silence while his father read through the guest list for the up and coming ball.

"Tell me son, is there any one I've missed?" He passed the list to his bored son who rested his chin on his hand while skimming through the names of all the suitably aged female nobility in Linphea.

"Dad, I've met all of these girls. They all suck." He put childishly as he let the list fall out of his hand. His father and a couple of members of the royal staff let out a small gasp.

"I won't have you speaking so frankly young man! Each and every girl on this list has a unique quality and they are very eligible, beautiful and well rounded young women. I thought I brought you up to be more polite!"

"I get so bored constantly flattering these girls, it's like they need constant assurance from me that they're good enough to be where they are! They don't need me to elaborate for them! It gets on my nerves, and furthermore, I can't remember a single time when a girl asked one thing about me. They obviously want the royal title, and it seems to me that they couldn't care less about what I want to do with my future, or want to know anything about me at all for that matter! I don't even want to stay in Linphea for goodness sake!"

"HELIA!" his father stood up and stared the dark haired prince down, "You have a responsibility to these people. Tradition must be kept."

"I don't care anymore!"

"I can't bend the rules for you, but… What would make you cooperate?" his father quickly changed his tune. The king was an impatient man, and therefore avoided argument where possible. He didn't want to spoil his reputation.

"Invite all the 'suitably aged' girls in Mithweald regardless of their class. That's all I ask." Helia sighed.

"I… I…" his father hesitated.

"I just want to meet some new people, before I get stuck with one for the rest of my life."

"… Fine. I make the announcement tomorrow."

"Thank you." Helia smiled slightly.

_~A/N~_

_Sum sh*ts about to go down yo_

_The next chapter of Anything for you is almost finished, then I PROMISE I'll update Princess + the Pauper_


	2. Chapter 2

**Before The Dawn**

"Oh my gosh! You're hair is GORGEOUS! Where did you get it braided?" Stella eyed a female vendor's hair in awe.

"Oh thank you honey! My sister works as a hairdresser in- THIEVES!" She pointed at Flora and Musa running away with fruit in their arms.

"Stella really needs to stop being the one to distract people! She never holds their attention long enough!" Musa whined.

"OH MY GOSH. I will go get that food back for you if it's the last thing I do!" Stella proclaimed to the vendor, and then ran off as fast as she could.

Flora and Musa were waiting around the corner, panting like hell. Stella shortly caught up with them agreed on

"Well at least you amateurs got all the food we agreed on." Stella folded her arms.

"You're the one who decided to make small talk with the woman rather than really catching her attention!" Flora exclaimed, "We could have been caught! We should stop for today."

"I guess you're right." The three of them divided up the food.

"Are you guys going to watch the royal announcement today?" Musa asked. Stella nodded. We don't have a TV, so we're going to the bar to watch it with everyone else.

"That's what we're doing," said Musa, "How about you Flo?"

"Cassandra will probably be watching it, so I'll just have to plan my work schedule so I'm in the same room as the TV when it's on." Flora sighed.

"I wish we could all watch it together," Stella said sadly.

"We can talk about it later, maybe it won't even be that interesting. I'll see you girls later!" Flora waved her friends off.

~.~.~

"_We have decided to open the royal ball to any girl in the Mithweald area between the ages of seventeen and twenty-two. We hope you can attend and all of us at the palace are quite sure that it'll be an evening to remember. We apologise for the short notice of this announcement, but we will see all of you tomorrow night." _Cassandra turned off the TV and grumbled.

"Opening up the ball to the commoners. The audacity!"

Flora with a broom in hand stared at the black screen. This was good news- no. This was great news! It meant that she was once again eligible to go. This is exactly what her parents would have wanted her to do.

"Flora!" Cassandra whipped her head round to see her stepdaughter in a daze. Flora looked away and quickly started to sweep again. "Flora! Look at me when I'm talking to you!" Flora hesitantly met Cassandra's eye.

"Yes Cassandra?"

"Don't you think for a second that I'll let you attend that ball." She hissed.

"What ball?" Chimera came down the stairs rubbing her eyes, she had just woken up. It was about three in the afternoon.

"Chimera! A lady is not meant to sleep in so late!"

"What ball?" she repeated, pushing past Flora.

"The Prince's ball! It's tomorrow night! We've been looking forward to this since you were born!"

"… I guess I remember you mentioning something like that."

"It's been opened up to commoners, this is a huge problem." Cassandra put her head in her hands.

"Which is why you don't have a say in whether I go or not!" Flora said firmly. Chimera burst out laughing.

"Oh please! Like the prince would want to see your ugly face there!"

"You work for me, Flora. You will not be permitted to take leave to go to the ball. If I even see you there you'll suffer the same fate as your father!" said Cassandra. Flora looked her straight in the eye.

"What do you mean by that?" Flora asked quietly. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you know something about my father's death." Cassandra held out her hand and gave Flora a loud smack on her face.

"Don't speak ill of me Flora, not in my house."

"IT'S NOT YOUR HOUSE! IT'S MY DAD'S!" Flora screamed. Cassandra stared at the girl for a second before storming up the stairs.

"You're not going to the ball, Flora. Now get out, I don't want to even hear you right now. If I see you again today, you don't even want to know what I will do." She continued up the stairs.

"Don't come back until tomorrow, I don't want to see or hear you either." Chimera huffed, and then made her way to the kitchen.

They didn't have to ask Flora twice. She grabbed her small satchel (Full of money that she wasn't meant to have) from the hook in the hall and left the house.

She walked out to the market square where most of the stalls had already closed up. She bought herself a croissant and settled on a bench to eat it and mulled over what had just happened.

"'Suffer the same fate as my father'…?" She asked herself quietly.

"Flora! I've never seen you at this time of day before!" Flora whipped her head around to see Musa, once again with her flute in hand.

"Oh hey Musa," she smiled slightly.

"What's wrong? Shouldn't you be with that Cassandra cow and her stupid daughter?" she asked. Musa had met Cassandra and her daughter once. That is a time that none of them speaks of.

"I got thrown out for the night," Flora shrugged, "I accidentally screamed at Cassandra about my dad after the announcement, and they kicked me out so they didn't have to answer me."

"Did you ask if you could go to the ball?" Musa asked hopefully.

"Well she said no, but there's no way in hell I'm not going."

"Oh cool! PAR-TAY!" Musa threw her arms in the air, coincidentally slapping an approaching Stella in the face.

"Okay, first of all, ouch, secondly, Flora did you hear about the party?" Stella said enthusiastically, Flora nodded. "Flora? Aren't you excited?" Stella waved her hand in front of the girl's eyes.

"You know it!" Flora laughed. "I was just thinking about where I'm going to stay tonight."

"Cassandra kicked her out for the evening." Musa explained.

"Why don't we just have a sleepover then?" Stella suggested, "You guys could come over to my house! Oh! And we could call my mum, she's visiting tomorrow and I'm sure she'd bring us all some dresses we can wear to the ball!"

"You really think she could get us some gowns?" Musa asked excitedly.

"Of course! We just need to call her in time, so come on!"

~.~.~

"I've heard so much about you girls, it's surprising that this is the first time that I've met you." Stella's dad greeted. He was in the middle of reading a book at the kitchen table. Stella's home was slightly bigger and homely than any other home in the Mithweald area. Stella's mother, Luna, had always been the breadwinner of the couple, so she paid child support to Radius, Stella's father. Not to mention all the money saved on food, thanks to Stella. It was still about three times smaller than the home Cassandra inherited from Flora's father, but it was nice.

"It's really nice to meet you too," Flora smiled politely.

"Yeah dude, your crib isn't bad!" Musa laughed.

"… You can all sleep in the living room, and I'll sort some dinner out."

"Hey daddy, can I use the phone call mum?"

"Uh… Sure."

Stella led her friends into the fair-sized living room. There was a sofa, and armchair, and a fireplace.

"My dad's really nervous about mum coming over." She said quietly, "I hope they don't argue. They're only doing this for me." She picked up the phone and dialled her mother's number.

"Hey mum! … Did you hear? … Heck yeah I'm going! Hey listen, could you bring me a gown to wear? … Aw thank you! And could you bring two more for my friends… Yes… Fine… My size, we switch clothes all the time… Thank you! See you tomorrow!" Stella put the phone down, "She said yes!"

"Oh wow! I've never even worn a proper dress before!" Musa beamed excitedly.

"It'll be my first time in a while…" Flora lightly smiled.

"Oh my gosh WE are going to have the BEST TIME!" Stella put her arms around the girls.

This was the first time that any of the girls had ever enjoyed a sleepover. They spent the whole night laughing, eating, gossiping and plotting future schemes. Flora couldn't fully enjoy herself though; she knew that she would have to be up early to buy the groceries for Cassandra and Chimera, but she badly wanted to stay and see the dresses that Stella's mother was going to bring.

The next morning, Flora naturally opened her eyes at five am; she would normally start the day with chores until the nine, when Cassandra would send her out for food. She was more tired than usual, seeing as the three of them had fallen asleep at three.

Flora slowly closed her eyes again.

What seemed like a minute later, she was being shaken awake by Stella.

"Hey! Breakfast!"

"Hunnnnnnnnng…." Was all Flora could manage out.

"C'mon! This is later than any of us sleep in, it's ten Flo! And my mum's here! You HAVE to see your dress!" Stella pulled her up.

"I'm sorry I'm just so tired, I can't believe I'm being so rude…"

"Forget it!" Stella pulled her into the kitchen where Luna, Stella's mother, Radius and Musa were sitting around the large circular table. The table had three large, white boxes on it. "Hey mum! This is Flora! The friend that's being forced to work for no pay against her will that I told you about."

"… Not Flora Willow, right?" Before even saying hello, the Luna looked Flora up and down.

"… Yes, how did you know?" she asked.

"I used to make all of your dresses when you were a little girl. What happened to your parents? As I recall you were living very comfortably." She almost seemed angry, it was like the story she had pieced together was that Flora was mooching for sympathy off the poorer part of the city. Flora was speechless, what could she say?

"Uh, mum, didn't you hear what I just said?" Stella folded her arms.

"I did, but our stories don't match up."

"My-my… My parents are-… I have to go, I'm late and Cassandra is going to be furious so the sooner I get back the better. Thank you very much for having me Radius… Bye Musa, Stella, I had lots of fun- I'll see you girls later, at the ball." Flora's voice cracked and she ran out of the house.

"What was that about?" Luna asked.

"The Willow packaging plant closed down last year, Luna," Radius explained, "The owner, David Willow, died of 'sudden adult death syndrome', and his wife had died of cancer of few years earlier. Flora was orphaned and now works as a live in maid for her father's second wife."

Musa was looking down and holding her hands tightly together; things just got really awkward. Even Stella, who barely knew the meaning of the word, was feeling the pressure.

"You moved to the country before any of this even happened, you wouldn't have known about any of it." Stella said quietly.

"I say things without really thinking a lot, I guess that's where you get it from." She smiled at Stella, "I'll catch up with her and give her this dress," she stood up and picked up one of the large white boxes.

~.~.~

Flora was sitting on a bench and staring at the markets; they weren't so busy as a lot of food had already been bought by the palace for the ball. She was building up her courage to go back to Cassandra, when she heard a small cough behind her. Luna.

"Here," Luna passed her the box, "I hope you like it. And I'm sorry…"

"Wow, thank you. It's fine; don't worry about it, you wouldn't have known. It's just that it still hurts to talk about."

"You're parents were wonderful people. Your mother was there for me when I went through my divorce and your father even helped me get the dress shop out in the country up and running to make sure I was secure."

"That's nice."

"Didn't…" Luna hesitated, "Didn't your father write you into his will?"

"If he even had one, no one found it. Everything automatically went to Cassandra."

"I know for a fact that he wrote one." Said Luna, "I found it in your wardrobe when I was helping your mother go through your dresses, so I gave it back to him to hide it again."

"Wait, he wrote one?!" Flora stood up, "I have to get back! Thank you so much, I'll see you later!"

"Wait Flora!" Luna called, "I still feel bad, isn't there anything else I can do?" Flora stopped and turned around.

"Well, there is one thing,"

~.~.~

"I have been so busy today! I'm helping the palace set up for the ball you see, I was having such a hard time getting all the decorations into my van, when this little angel stopped and spent three hours helping me clear out the shop. You've done a wonderful job bringing her up, I just wanted to make sure she got home safely."

Cassandra looked at the blonde woman standing next to Flora and raised an eyebrow.

"I guess you could say that Flora has always been exceptionally helpful." She said blankly, and then eyed the white box that Flora was holding in her arms, "What's in the box?"

"Oh! I wanted to give Flora a gift for her generosity." The woman smiled, "Well, I expect I'll be seeing you at the ball then. Goodbye!"

Cassandra pulled Flora in and slammed the door shut.

"Count yourself lucky you didn't get into any trouble." She hissed, "Now, you're running late. I want you to help get Chimera ready for the ball later, so for now you can… Dust."

"Of course," Flora said quickly, "I'll just go get the duster," she ran upstairs clutching the box, Cassandra couldn't see what was inside; she's be furious.

Once in the attic, Flora slid the box under her bed and adjusted the bed skirt so that it was hidden. She badly wanted to start hunting for her father's will but she had to follow Cassandra's rules for at least the rest of the day, maybe if she kept on her good side she'd actually have permission to go to the ball.

Time went on, it was nine in the evening and time for ball. Flora was looking like a mess, not ideal, but she figured if she put on the dress then maybe Stella would be able to do one of her last-minute miracles before they actually went inside.

Flora pulled out the white box, took off the lid, pulled away the tissue paper and stared in horror at the pile of silky pink shreds lying inside.

"I did say no," Cassandra said from behind her, "What did you expect me to do? Just let you sneak out that easily? I think not." She dropped a large pair of scissors on the floor behind Flora and walked out of the room, slamming and locking the door shut behind her. "You should know better than to plot against me like this!"

Flora didn't turn around, or even move her head. She stared into the abyss of her own mind. Empty. Why did it have to come to this? Why her?

She stared up at the ceiling. Why did she want to go to the ball so badly anyway? Sure, she had been looking forward to it since she was ten, and sure, it was what her parents would have wanted, and sure, it was a chance to just have some fun with her friends without any stupid responsibility, that opportunity did not come about often.

She jumped up and rattled the door handle. It was no use. Cassandra was a class a bitch.

A small noise came from behind Flora, freezing her up. Getting louder, she realised that it was someone humming.

"Wh-who's there?" Flora squeaked out.

"Why don't you turn around and see for yourself?" said a girl's voice. Flora gulped and slowly turned around.

A girl with dark skin and long dark hair was standing in the middle of her room. She was wearing a colourful skirt and tube top that literally seemed to be glowing, not to mention the enormous wings on her back.

"OH MY F**KING WHAT THE HELL?!" Flora yelled at the top of her lungs, "I'VE GOT TO CALL THE POLICE! I HAVE NO PHONE! OH MY ACTUAL- SOMEONE HELP ME!" She pounded her bedroom door, then turned back around, "PLEASE DON'T HURT ME! I HAVE NOTHING TO GIVE YOU BUT I CAN-"

"Would you just chill out?" The girl said, "I'm here to help you!"

"Who ARE you?"

"I guess you could call me your fairy god-mother, but that makes me sound like a seventy year-old woman, so just call me Layla."

"Fairy god-mother? The hell are you on about?"

"I literally cannot tell you where I come from else I would have to kill you, but I guess you could say that I was sent by… Someone you know to look over you after that someone had… Gone." She explained.

"… Well what took you so long?"

"You're good at keeping yourself out of serious trouble, but I was watching what was going on with this whole 'ball' thing, and no, it's not going down the way Cassandra wants."

"I'm sorry, I'm still having trouble contemplating this situation." Flora sat down on her bed.

"Let me show you what I'm here for." Layla sighed. She waved her hand and suddenly the scraps of pink material from the white box mended themselves and turned back into a beautiful gown.

"HOW DID YOU DO THAT?"

"Magic! I'm a fairy!" She pointed to her wings, "Duh! Now, let's get you ready for that ball…"

_A/N_

_Please review!_


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